
Qass. 
Book_ 






-4 



:^7 



PERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES. 



OUR TITLE TO OREGON 



By WILLIAM A. MOWRY. 




Class 
Book- 



[ Reprinted from the Magazine of American History for October, 1886.] 



■y 



TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES* 

OUR TITLE TO OREGON 

The question of our title to Oregon is an interesting one, and has occa- 
sioned much difference of opinion. The claim has sometimes been made 
that we obtained possession of this portion of the Pacific slope by our 
purchase of the Province of Louisiana. It will be the design of this paper 
to show that the United States Government has always maintained a con- 
sistent course upon this question, and that among a variety of claims, each 
of which added something to our title, that from the Louisiana purchase 
was of very little consequence, and should not be considered of such im- 
portance as to be named upon a par with the others. The following facts 
should be borne in mind from the outset — 

(i.) It is well known that the Columbia River was first discovered by 
Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, in 1792. 

(2.) If France had any claim to that territory we purchased it in 1803. 

(3.) President Jefferson, entirely irrespective of this purchase, sent out 
an expedition under Captains Lewis and Clarke, in 1804, to explore the 
country of the upper Missouri and to cross over and follow to the sea any 
great river they might find running westward from the mountains. In the 
years 1805 ^'""^ 1806, they explored the country of the Columbia from the 
sources of its two great branches to the Pacific. This exploration was 
planned by Jefferson before the purchase of Louisiana. 

(4,) We made the first actual settlement of the country at Astoria in 
1810. 

(5.) We purchased from Spain, in the Florida treaty, her right to all 
that country north of 42°. 

(6.) We may mention as an additional claim its contiguity to our other 
possessions. 

In order to understand the value of these various claims to this terri- 
tory and to be able to appreciate correctly their relative importance, it will 
be well to consider our controversy with Great Britain upon this subject. 
The careful consideration of the grounds of our title as put forth at diiTer- 
ent periods by our ministers to the Court of Saint James will probably 

* The accompanying map of the territorial growth of the United States exhibits to the eye at 
a single glance the rapid strides our country has made geographically. This map, which is singu- 
larly accurate and admirably executed, is used here by the courtesy of the publishers of Prof. 
Fisher's Outlines of Universal History, Messrs. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. 



334 TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 

form the surest basis of a correct judgment. Prior to 1818, although Great 
Britain had laid some claim to the country west of the Rocky Mountains, 
yet no definite negotiations had been undertaken between the two govern- 
ments to settle the dispute. During the year 18 18, however, our > ministers 
plenipotentiary, Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, carried on extended .commu- 
nications with the British Commissioners, Messrs. Gouldburn and Robinson, 
upon this subject. It was agreed by these gentlemen, in a cowention 
dated October 20, 1818, and ratified by the governments January 30, 1819, 
that: — "Any country that may be claimed by either part}' on the north- 
west coast of America, westward of the Stoney Mountains, shah be free 
and open for the term of ten years from this date to the vessels, citizens, 
and subjects of the two powers, it being well understood that this agree- 
ment is not to be considered to prejudice any claim which either of the 
two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor 
shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power, or State, to any 
part of the said country ; the only object of the high contracting parties 
in that respect being to prevent disputes and differences among them- 
selves." * 

The foregoing is the third article of the convention. It was signed by 
Albert Gallatin and Richard Rush on the part of the United States, and 
by Frederick John Robinson and Henry Gouldburn on the part of Great 
Britain. This agreement was continued in 1827 and lasted till the final 
settlement of the boundary in 1846. It is worthy of our special attention 
to observe what were the positions assumed by these two distinguished 
diplomatists of ours and what counter claims were set up by the British 
Commissioners, at this early stage of negotiations between the two coun- 
tries. Messrs. Gallatin and Rush did not assert at this time that the 
United States had a perfect right to this country, but insisted that our 
title was at least good against Great Britain. Our commissioners con- 
tended that we could hold this territory for the following reasons: — on 
account of — 

(i.) The discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Gray in 1792. 

(2.) The first exploration from the sources to the mouth of this river 
by Lewis and Clarke in 1804, 5 and 6. 

(3.) The formation of the first establishment in the country by Ameri- 
can citizens; viz., the planting of the colony of Astoria in 1810. 

On the other hand the English Commissioners claimed that " former 
voyagers and principally that of Captain Cook gayc to Great Britain the 
rights derived from discovery, and they alluded to purchases from the 

* United Staii's Treaties and Co:ivcntions, p. 351. 



TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 335 

natives south of the Columbia which they alleged to have been made 
prior to the American Revolution. They did not make any formal prop- 
osition for a boundary, but intimated that the river itself was the most 
conve "ent which could be.adopted, and that they would not agree to any 
which lid not give them the harbor at the mouth of that river, in common 
with the United States." 

In eply to this, we may here remark that Captain Cook saw no part of 
this coast south of latitude 57° which had not been explored by the Spanish, 
long before his voyage, and however proper that argument may have been 
in 1818, when, a little later, we had purchased all the rights of Spain to 
this country the case stood somewhat differently. No further negotiations 
took place between our government and that of Great Britain till 1824. 
At that time Mr. Rush claimed for the United States " in their own right, 
as their absolute and exclusive sovereignty and dominion, the whole of the 
country west of the Rocky Mountains from the 42° to at least as far up as 
the 51° of north latitude." He further said that "in the opinion of my 
government the title of the United States to the whole of that coast from 
latitude 42° to as far north as 60° was superior to that of Great Britain or 
any other power; 1st. Through the proper claim of the United States by 
discovery and settlement ; and 2d, as now standing in the place of Spain, 
and holding in their hands her title." 

It will be observed that even in 1824 Mr. Rush did not base our claim 
on the Louisiana purchase. It may not be without profit to quote more 
fully from Mr. Rush's views at that time. He claimed " exclusive posses- 
sion and sovereignty at least as far north as the 51st degree of latitude," 
which was then supposed to represent the northern limit of the waters of 
the Columbia. In support of this claim he cited the following facts: 

(i.) "The first exploration of that discovery of the Columbia by Cap- 
tain Gray." 

(2.) " The first exploration of that river, from its sources to the sea, by 
Lewis and Clarke." 

(3.) " The first settlement on its banks by the Pacific Fur Company, 
a settlement which was reduced by the arms of the British during the late 
war, but was formally surrendered up to the United States at the return of 
peace;" and 

(4.) From the transfer by Spain to the United States of all her titles 
to those territories, founded upon the well-known discoveries of her navi- 
gators ; and he insisted, in obedience to expressed instructions from his 
government, " that no part of the American continent was thenceforth to 
be opened to colonization from Europe." 



336 TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 

Again he says: " The claims of the United States above the 42d par- 
allel as high up as 60° — claims as well in their own right as by succession 
to the title of Spain — would henceforth necessarily preclude other nations 
from forming colonial establishments upon any part of the American con- 
tinent.* 

Let us with equal brevity summarize the arguments for our exclusive 
jurisdiction, as put forth in 1826. 

(i.) "The acquisition by the United States of the title of France 
through the Louisiana treaty and the title of Spain through the Florida 
treaty," 

(2.) " The discovery of the mouth of the Columbia." 

(3.) " The first exploration of the countries through which the river 
flows." 

(4.) "The establishment of the first posts and settlements in those 
countries by American citizens." 

(5.) " The virtual recognition of the title of the United States by the 
British Government, in the restitution agreeably to the first article of the 
treaty of Ghent, of the post near the mouth of the Columbia, which had 
been taken during the war." 

(6.) " Upon the ground of contiguity which should give the United 
States a stronger right to those territories than could be advanced by any 
other power." t 

It has been observed by every thoughtful mind that in pressing our 
claims to Oregon upon the British Government no one ground was ex- 
clusively relied upon, but rather an aggregation of claims was presented 
and insisted upon. That the country beyond the Rocky Mountains never 
belonged to France, and hence could not have been ceded to us as a part 
of the Louisiana purchase, will appear plain from the following considera- 
tions: 

(i.) France never claimed beyond the Rocky Mountains. In 1712, 
King Louis XIV. granted to Antoine Crozat the exclusive trade of the 
territory called Louisiana. This grant gives the earliest exposition of the 
limits of that province. By the grant to Crozat the territory is "bounded 
by New Mexico, and by those of the English in Carolina. The river St. 
Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, from the sea-shore to the Illinois, 
together with the rivers St. Philip, formerly called the Missouries River, 
and the St. Jerome, formerly called the Wabash (the Ohio), with all the 
countries, territories, lakes in the land, and the rivers emptying directly or 

* Protocol of the twelfth conference between plenipotentiaries held June 26, 1824, among the 
documents annexed to President Adams's message to Congress, January 31, 1826. 
f Greenhow's History of Oregon, pp. 347-8. 



TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 337 

inciirectly into that part of the river St. Louis.'"" This description by 
no possible construction could include anything beyond the head waters 
of the Missouri. France never afterward claimed for herself beyond the 
Rocky Mountains. 

(2.) Spain always asserted that Louisiana was limited by the Rocky 
Mountains. During all our negotiations with Spain in relation to Florida, 
and which includes a full discussion of our western boundaries, Spain never 
admitted for a moment that Louisiana extended west of the mountains. 

(3 ) Neither Great Britain nor any of her writers upon the subject ever 
allowed that Louisiana extended west of the Rocky Mountains. 

(4.) Until after the treaty of Florida in 18 19, our government never 
contended that our title to Oregon was perfect. 

Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, in 1818, in reporting to their government, 
stated ; " We did not assert that the United States had a perfect right 
to that country, but insisted that tl\eir claim was at least good against 
Great Britain. "f But after our purchase of Florida and settlement of the 
boundary between our territory and the Spanish provinces as latitude 42° 
north : that is, when we had purchased Florida, given up Texas to Spain, 
and she had ceded her right and claim to Oregon to the United States, then 
we set up a complete title to that country. In 1845, ^^^- Buchanan asserted 
that " our own American title to the extent of the valley of the Columbia, 
resting as it does on discovery, exploration, and possession, — a possession 
acknowledged by a most solemn act by Great Britain herself, — is a suffi- 
cient assurance against all mankind ; whilst our superadded title derived 
from Spain extends our exclusive rights over the whole territory in dis- 
pute against Great Britain." ^ This position expressed by Mr. Secretary 
Buchanan in his negotiations with the British Government in 1845, ^^^^ 
been uniformly held by our government from the time of the Florida 
treaty. 

" In 1824, Mr. Rush commenced his negotiations by claiming for the 
United States * in their own right, and as their absolute and exclusive 
sovereignty and dominion, .the whole of the country west of the Rocky 
Mountains, from the 42d to at least as far up as the 51st degree of north 
latitude.' He further said that ' in the opinion of my government, the title 
of the United States to the whole of that coast from latitude 42° to as far 
north as 60°, was superior to that of Great Britain or any other power; 

* See State Papers, 1817-181S, p. 437. Our Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, says, 
" the only boundaries ever acknowledged by France before the cession to Spain, in 1762. were those 
jnarked out in the grant from Louis XIV. to Crozat." 

f See Travers Tiviss, p. 202. \ Letter from Mr. Buchanan, July 12, 1845. 

Vol. XVI.-No. 4.-23 



338 TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 

first, through the proper claim of the United States by discovery and set- 
tlement ; and secondly, as now standing in the place of Spain, and holding 
in their hands her title.' "* 

(5.) The opinion that Louisiana did not extend beyond the Rocky 
Mountains has been almost, if not quite, uniformly held by the leading 
statesmen of our government. Mention has already been made of the 
views of Mr. Rush, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. John Quincy Adams, and Mr. Bu- 
chanan ; all of whom conducted at different times negotiations with Great 
Britain upon this subject. Mr, Jefferson, in a letter written in August, 
1803, immediately after the ratification of the treaty of purchase of Louis- 
iana, says: "The boundaries (of Louisiana) which I deem not admitting 
question, are the highlands on the western side of the Mississippi, inclos- 
ing all its waters (the Missouri, of course), and terminating in a line drawn 
from the north-western point of the Lake of the Woods to the nearest 
source of the Mississippi." 

John J. Anderson, Ph.D., the author of a series of school histories of 
the United States, in reviewing this subject used the following lan- 
guage: "In March, 1844, Mr. A. V. Brown, from the Committee on the 
Territories, made a report to Congress, covering twenty-four closely 
printed pages, in which this whole question is thoroughly discussed. In 
this long report there is not the first attempt to prove that our right to 
Oregon came to us through the Louisiana purchase." Dr. Anderson 
also says: "Mr. Clay says not a word of the Louisiana purchase, and 
Mr. Gallatin, in his able and exhaustive discussion on the subject, as 
manifested in his letters, and in his celebrated pamphlet of seventy-five 
pages, published in 1846, makes but the briefest allusion to the Louisiana 
purchase. The whole bent of his argument is to show that our title to 
Oregon came to us through discoveries, exploration and occupation. Mr. 
Cushing's report, made to Congress in 1839, ^^e books written from the 
English standpoint by the English authors, Thomas Falconer, Travers 
Twiss and John Dunn, besides numerous pamphlets, an able article in the 
North American Review for 1845, p. 214, as well as Presidents' messages 
and reports of debates in Congress — all reviewing and discussing the Oregon 
question — have been read by me with care ; but nowhere have I seen any 
attempt whatever to prove that any part of the region west of the Rocky 
Mountains ever belonged to France, or that France made any pretense of 
conveying it to the United States." f 

* Travers Twiss, p. 26g. 

f From a pamphlet by Dr. Anderson entitled " Did the Louisiana Purchase Extend to the Pa- 
cific Ocean?" 1880. 



TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 339 

In 1839 Hon. Caleb Gushing, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
submitted to Congress an able and exhaustive report, in which he ex- 
presses substantially the views given above. In this report Mr. Cushing 
says: "The United States, then, claim title to the exclusive dominion, as 
against any foreign power, of the country extending east and west from , 
the Rocky Mountains, and north and south from the limits of the Mexican 
Republic in latitude 42° north to those of Russia in 54° 40', with an offer 
to relinquish to Great Britain all north of latitude 49°. They claim this 
on three grounds — 

(i.) In their own right. 

(2.) As the successor of France. And 

(3.) Of Spain." 

He then elaborates the first and third points, and slides over the second. 
He shows that after our purchase of Louisiana, Spain was the only ppwer 
that could contest our claim to the Pacific territory. He says: "The 
Louisiana treaty cedes to the United States the Colony or Province of 
Louisiana with the same extent it had in the hands of Spain in . 

that it had when previously possessed by France, with all its r and 

appurtenances. This description is, to be sure, sufficiently loose. I .j l J\ apo- 
leon, having made the cession at the moment of going to war wiln Great 
Britain, and having made it to prevent the country from falling into the 
hands of the latter, and having ceded it to the United States out of friendly 
feelings towards us and in order to augment our power as against that of Brit- 
ain — being actuated by these motives, he, of course, chose to execute a quit- 
claim rather than a warranty of boundaries ; and the United States, placed 
in the position of acquiring at a cheap price a territory almost invaluable 
to her, had no disposition to be hypercritical on this point, and thus haz- 
ard the loss of such a favorable contingency. And though much contro- 
versy sprang up in regard to the south-western or south-eastern limits of 
Louisiana, yet all this resolved itself at length into a qiiestion xvith Spain, as 
did also the donbts as to the WESTERN limits of Louisiana."* 

These statements indicate that there was a doubt in the mind of Mr. 
Cushing in reference to the western boundaries of Louisiana, but that no 
government except that of Spain could show any claim to this country. 
When, therefore, we had purchased her right, our title to Oregon was ab- 
solutely indisputable throughout its widest extent. In an article of great 
value exhibiting careful thought, wide research, rare good judgment and 
statesmanlike views, by Mr. Cushing in the North American Review for 
January, 1840, the author uses the following language : " This event " — the 
* Document No. loi, House of Representatives, 25th Congress, 3d Session, p 7. 



340 TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 

purchase of Louisiana — " gave us great, though 7indcfincd, rights on the 
side of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific* 

During the prehminary negotiations for the sale of Louisiana by Napo- 
leon, when the obscurity of the western boundary was mentioned to him 
by Marbois, Napoleon is reported to have said : '• If an obscurity did not 
already exist, perhaps it would be good policy to put one there." f 

When Canada was granted to Great Britain in 1763, the French certainly 
ceded only what they possessed. " It is," says Marbois, ^^ as a consequence 
of that treaty that England has occupied territory to the west as far as the 
great Northern Ocean." :]: As against England, then, on the same principle, 
we might claim, by virtue of this cession, to the Pacific with equal force 
and justice. But Marbois plainly says, in speaking upon this point : "The 
shores of the Western Ocean were certainly not included in the cession." § 
And, again he says: "The treaty of cession to the United States meant to 
convey nothing beyond the Rocky Mountains." || 

"It is well known that the Spanish Government protested against the 
transfer of Louisiana by France to the United States, but their opposition 
was abandoned, and the next year (1804) a negotiation was commenced at 
Madrid between that government and the United States, looking to the 
adjustment of the lines which separated their respective territories. In 
this negotiation our country claimed the whole coast upon the Gulf of 
Mexico as far west as the Bravo Del Norte, now the Rio Grande, which 
the United States then claimed was the north-east boundary of Mexico, 
with all the intermediate rivers, and all the countries drained by t/iein.''^ 

Thus early did our government establish itself upon the general ground 
that the Louisiana purchase extended only to the Rocky Mountains. It 
is clear also that it claimed Texas as a proper portion of the purchase. But 
in the Florida treaty it was stipulated that, in addition to buying the 
Floridas of Spain,. we should- waive our claim to Texas, and she should 
yield her claim to Oregon. This claim v/as considered of such importance 
that from that moment, as we have seen, our government ever maintained 
that she had an absolute and perfect right to Oregon. 

From all the foregoing considerations we therefore conclude that our 
claims to Oregon consisted ; 

(i.) In our own right, coming from discovery, exploration, settlement 
and contiguity ; 

(2.) From purchase of whatever right France had in it, which, however, 



* N. A. Review, vol. 1., p 95. + Marbois, p. 2S6. % Marbois, p. 2S5. 

g Marbois, p. 286, || Marbois, p. 290. T[ Greenhow's History of Oregon, p. 280. 



TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 341 

is the smallest, least important and most questionable of all our claims ; 
and 

(3.) From our succeeding to the right which Spain might have set up 
to all that coast north of latitude 42°. 

It is possible that, had we not purchased this right of Spain, we mic^-ht 
have maintained successfully our exclusive jurisdiction, especially as against 
Great Britain, but after the Florida treaty our statesmen never entertained 
any doubt but that our title was perfect and that we could maintain it 
against the world. 

At this day it is difficult to overestimate the value and importance to 
the United States of that great country, and while the party alliterative 
cry in 1844 of " Fifty-four-forty-or-fight " only aided in the defeat of one 
candidate and the election of another to the presidency, and did not pre- 
vent that same President from negotiating the treaty on 49°, thus yielding 
to Great Britain a valuable country of no mean magnitude and importance, 
because the American people would not approve of a third war \. an Liie 
mother country for the possession of a territory so little known and so far 
away, yet it did settle amicably with Great Britain a controversy of great 
moment and long standing, and gave us undisputed possession of what is 
now Oregon, Washington and Idaho— one of the most healthful, fertile 
and altogether delightful countries on the globe, extending through seven 
degrees of latitude and ten degrees of longitude, and containing in round 
numbers 300,000 square miles, a country larger than France or Germany 
or Italy. 



Boston, Massachusetts. 




7^ 



^^ 






